Joseph Mallozzi's Blog! (SPOILERS For All SG Shows and Dark Matter)

[Night Spring]

So I was reading the latest entry (Feb. 26) at Joe's blog (I'll leave it to someone else to do the full copy-and-paste), and I noticed this Q&A:

Pilgrim writes: “Will we be seeing more of the dark side of Atlantis, and it's characters, this year?”

Answer: That’s a definite yes. There will be some decidedly dark developments in the back half of season 3 and into season 4.

I've seen all of the back half of S3, and I'm scratching my head thinking "Dark developments? What dark developments?" Does someone have a clue what Joe's referring to?

[PG15]

Well,

Spoiler:

I'd say Carson's death, Michael's experiments, massive nuclear attack in First Strike, the backstory to the alien civllization in The Ark, and the whole atmosphere of Submersion

counts as getting darker, IMHO anyway.

[sgeureka]

I've seen all of the back half of S3, and I'm scratching my head thinking "Dark developments? What dark developments?" Does someone have a clue what Joe's referring to?

In addition to what PG15 said, let's not forget that JM once advertised the immediate episodes after "The Quest" as "Daniel going dark" and "a controversial Daniel story arc". Seeing how it all turned out, I'd say there was a lot of fan fuzz about nothing. (The arc was nonetheless interesting.)

[prion]

So I was reading the latest entry (Feb. 26) at Joe's blog (I'll leave it to someone else to do the full copy-and-paste), and I noticed this Q&A:

Quote:
Pilgrim writes: “Will we be seeing more of the dark side of Atlantis, and it's characters, this year?”

Answer: That’s a definite yes. There will be some decidedly dark developments in the back half of season 3 and into season 4.

I've seen all of the back half of S3, and I'm scratching my head thinking "Dark developments? What dark developments?" Does someone have a clue what Joe's referring to?

Having seen back half of season 3, uh, no, I don't see any 'decidedly dark developments,' which is why I've always said to take a lot of what he says with a shaker of salt Of course, the last quarter of "Sunday," yeah, that counts as dark for a whole bunch of fans!

[prion]

2/26 entry

Peter writes: “Do you guys, as in the writers, have any plans for the 100th episode of Atlantis?”

Answer: No plans yet but I’m sure we’ll be doing something extra special. I was thinking cake.

Shawna writes: “Any chance of any of the good guys getting (temporarily, I'd imagine) turned into a wraith, probably using some kind of backwards version of the wraith retrovirus?”

Answer: Hmmmmm. An intriguing possibility.

Vaberella also writes: “Will we see Teyla sparring with John, Ronon, Wraith, or Zelenka?! (…) What does your magical eight ball say about asking Claudia Christian(Commander Ivanova: B5) to guest star in an ep?”

Answer: Teyla will do plenty of sparring in season four. As for Claudia Christian doing a guest spot, Magic 8 Ball says “Cannot predict now.”

Cowpants writes: “1) How many times do you eat out a week? You seem to do it all the time. Doesn't that get expensive? 2) What is your favorite type of cheese? 3) Do the actors and actresses ever come to the writers and offer up plot suggestions? More importantly, do you ever follow the suggestions?”

Answer: 1) We eat out about 5 times a week. 2) I’m a Camembert man. 3) Yup. We’re receptive to input from the cast. Jason just came by the office today and tossed out some ideas. As it turns out, one of the ideas he was pitching was very close to the episode, Reunion, which will be episode #3 of season 4.

Pilgrim writes: “Will we be seeing more of the dark side of Atlantis, and it's characters, this year?”

Answer: That’s a definite yes. There will be some decidedly dark developments in the back half of season 3 and into season 4.

Etta writes: “Have you planned doing some ‘last episode special’ for the last SG1 episode?”

Answer: Special Features Producer Ivon Bartok has already put something together to commemorate the event.

Lilywrites: “In Trinity we learned that there were other Satedan survivors. Will we see any more of them?”

Answer: Check out Reunion.

Anonymous #3 writes: “You were surprised Atlantis skewed more male? How come? I ask, because I think it's fairly obvious that Atlantis tries to appeal more to the young male demographic.”

Answer: Actually, there was never a conscious effort to attempt to skew Atlantis more male.

Anonymous #3 also writes: “SG-1 has based much more heavily on internal character relationships, complex stories based in mythology, and is, by and large, a much more people-focused show. It's not so much about the flash, but more about the characters' place in the story. For those reasons I'd guess that SG-1 would appeal more to females and to an older audience in general.”

Answer: So you’re inferring that younger or male viewers are less intelligent? I don’t know if I agree with that. Furthermore, SG-1 has had many more years to establish their mythology, characters, and the various relationships between them. In time, I’m sure Atlantis will become just as “older/female-audience worthy”.

Anonymous #4 writes: “I’ve noticed that, while many of the populations that the teams meet appear to be “farmers” or “hunters”, you never see any animals in the scenes. […] I often wondered why and thought that I would ask.”

Answer: We have included animals whenever possible (the llama in Crusade comes to mind), but rarely make use of them unless they’re integral to the story. Or unless the director is a glutton for punishment. W.C. Fields once said: “Never work with kids and animals”. He knew what he was talking about.

Redtwin writes: “I just watched "First Strike" and loved seeing Shepherd with a much more commanding demeanor very similar to how he was in "the Storm". Will we see more of this side to him in season 4? What are your thoughts on Droste chocolate?”

Answer: Re: commanding Sheppard - we’ll see the many sides of John in season 4. Re: Droste chocolates - I’m not familiar with them. Do tell.

Anonymous #5 writes: “Since you're just getting started on production, can you tell us the directors for the first few episodes?”

Answer: Sure. Rob Cooper is directing Doppelganger. Martin Wood is directing the season opener, Adrift, and the follow-up, Lifeline.

[Night Spring]

Having seen back half of season 3, uh, no, I don't see any 'decidedly dark developments,' which is why I've always said to take a lot of what he says with a shaker of salt Of course, the last quarter of "Sunday," yeah, that counts as dark for a whole bunch of fans!

Yeah, well, all the "dark developments" PG15 listed has to do with plot, and I thought the question was asking if we would see any "dark" developments character-wise. Something like what we got in Michael and Misbegotten. And then there was Submersion, which, I think it was KenC who said we would see a big Teyla development in that episode, but I didn't see it that way -- Teyla had something to do, but I didn't see what she did as particularly interesting, characterwise. So yes, bring on that salt shaker!

[prion]

Feb 27th entry

Anonymous #1 writes: “We were wondering if you were stuck for a week with any character from the Stargate universe, who would it be and why?”

Answer: That Anise tok’ra from season four seemed very intelligent and nice.



Copernicus writes: “Will you guys be developing new story lines for Teyla, or should we merely expect more stand alone episodes?”

Answer: We’ve got a season-long arc in the works for Teyla.


Shawna also writes: “What happened to Carson's wee baby turtles?”

Answer: They are under McKay’s care. Happily, he hasn’t killed them yet.



Anonymous #2 writes: “Ever thought about having an episode where Ronon and Teal'c slug it out in an epic battle? Who would you put your money on?”

Answer: The thought has crossed my mind. Even Chris Judge wondered about it sometime last year - although he admitted that Ronon’s down and dirty fighting probably has the edge over Tealc’s “wushu ****”.



Anonymous #3 writes: “Any progress made on the possible big SG-1/Atlantis crossover?”

Answer: Still too early to tell.

[SGFerrit]

I'm really enjoying Joe's blog now. I check it every day. I asked him if I would support a petition I found yesterday, hope he replys.

[Naonak]

Anonymous #2 writes: “Ever thought about having an episode where Ronon and Teal'c slug it out in an epic battle? Who would you put your money on?”
Answer: The thought has crossed my mind. Even Chris Judge wondered about it sometime last year - although he admitted that Ronon’s down and dirty fighting probably has the edge over Tealc’s “wushu ****”.

ROFL!

[prion]

Just for reference: blog URL is

http://josephmallozzi.blogspot.com/index.html

[prion]

FEB 28 - http://josephmallozzi.blogspot.com/2...y-28-2007.html

This was the second year we’ve celebrated our cast dinner at Don Francesco. Besides the terrific food and service, we appreciate the fact that we can be seated at four separate tables which offered us a more casual dining experience, allowing us to move around and chat with our fellow diners between courses. I chatted briefly with Jewel and at greater length with her husband Matt, a very nice guy and an actor himself. We discussed local restaurants, the M.O.W he starts shooting today, and Jewel’s grueling movie shoot in Costa Rica. I also talked to Jason Momoa about his hockey-playing days. “You played hockey in Hawaii?”I asked incredulously. “No, I grew up in Iowa,”he informed me. Seriously. Is Iowa a hockey hotbed?

A nice night all around. I snappd a few pics. A shot of ever-photogenic Carl Binder. Camera loves this guy! A shot of Alan McCullough's lovely wife Teresa. The ever-delightful Jane and her fiancee who directed that Dog's Breakfast movie. A pic of a crazed-looking Andy Mikita. And a shot of yours truly wearing Jason Momoa's glasses which, I thought, made me look intelligent. I mean MORE intelligent. The festivities wrapped up a little after 10:30 p.m., but not before Carl regaled us with tales of his days as a page at NBC. One of his duties amounted to providing limo conversation for “stars” enroute to the airport. Apparently, some performers were so notoriously obnoxious that the pages would attempt to “trade off” the more intolerable assignments. I am, however, happy to report that Carl gave a big thumbs up to “class acts” like Michael J. Fox, Harry Anderson, and the great Jimmy Stewart.

We had our very first Atlantis cast read-through today. Since it was only the main cast and producers in attendance, Marty G. and I got to show off our acting skills by playing the parts of the various guest-stars in Doppelganger. As I stumbled my way through a Shakespeare-worthy soliloquy, Paul turned to Rob and suggested he pull the plug on my performance. To which Rob responded: “Nah, this is gold.” And it was. In the end, I think I really nailed it.

After lunch, we headed into our 1:00 p.m. Playback and Visual Effects meeting for Adrift and Lifeline. We worked our way through playback for both episodes in two marathon hours, then finished up the visual effects discussion for Adrift a little after 4:00 p.m. We were all exhausted and Paul suggested postponing the Lifeline portion of the visual effects meeting to another day. “We’re already here,”said Martin Gero. “Might as well get it over with.” Reluctantly, we agreed to forge ahead. At which point Martin - his work completed since we’d finished our discussion of Adrift - happily packed up his things and left us to discuss Carl’s script for the next hour and a half.

Questions?

Etta writes: “I have a question about Family Ties- whose idea was the last scene of the episode?”

Answer: I initially wrote the scene as a gag for the writer’s room. It got a big laugh and kept getting big laughs - so much so that people involved in the production were alarmed at the prospect of losing it. So I kept it in, assuming someone would make me cut it at some point. I assumed wrong.


Anonymous #1 writes: “How can you base a character arc on Teyla who's been background noise at best for the best part of three seasons?”

Answer: The fact that the character hasn’t had the opportunity to shine is exactly the reason we’re doing it. This arc and episodes focusing on Teyla will allow viewers to get to know the character a little better. Enjoy!

Anonymous #2 writes: “Does your magic 8 ball say there's any remote chance of an 'evil' Sheppard type episode? And for the record, i'm not beneath begging and would even throw in some dark chocolate offerings as way of bribing you.”

Magic 8 Ball says: Now it’s time for you to hold up your end of the deal. Send the dark chocolate to Joseph Mallozzi c/o The Bridge Studios.

Aaron Weinburg writes: “ There's some rumbling going around at the firm today about Sci-Fi Channel's long-term planning. Rumor has it that neither Stargate:Atlantis or Battlestar Galactica are a part of those plans. We haven't done any work for them for some time, but I think they're looking at a new ad campaign and network image.”

Answer: “The firm”? Well, I haven’t heard any rumors but I do know that Battlestar has been picked up for an additional 13 episodes.

Anonymous #3 writes: “Is that major arc for Elizabeth in season 4 still on?”

Answer: I never said it was a major arc for Elizabeth. I said “the Weir character will be a significant player in a major arc”. There’s a difference.

[AlphaBlu]

I've seen all of the back half of S3, and I'm scratching my head thinking "Dark developments? What dark developments?" Does someone have a clue what Joe's referring to?

Yeah. I have to agree there. All the 'dark turn' stuff TBTB have ever talked about has amounted to a whole lot of nothing. Don't get me wrong, First Strike was great, but I don't know what was 'dark' about it.

Truthfully, only the end of Season 9 SG-1 was 'dark', with all those ships going 'boom', the music, and the sheer destruction of it all.

BYE

[prion]

March 2nd
Day two of production means our first day of dailies (a.k.a. the previous day’s footage). Stand-outs sequences included a mesmerized Keller, that Rising-era look, and an armed and barefoot Lorne.

Had some people swing by the office today including all-year-round-shorts-sporting director Martin Wood who came in to talk scifi lit (note his enthusiastic response to our latest script), fellow anime-fan Krista McLean (hiding behind the blond lock) who borrowed China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station from my bookshelf, and playback artist Julie Oya who decided to come back from New York after all (holding the coffee). I took a stroll through the art department and checked in with finger-pointing supervising art director extraordinaire Tom Wells, and our production designer, James Robbins, who was more than happy to show off some of the nifty weapons he designed for Missing. Enroute, also got some snaps of Todd Masters and Nicholas Podbrey of Masters FX. Finally, I went by set and snapped shots of script coordinator Alex Levine and post coordinator Kerri McDowall working it for the camera, Doppelganger director Robert Cooper and DOP Jim Menard hard at work, a actor David “Dr. Zelenka” Nykel kicking back in his off-set leisure wear.

Let’s check the mailbag…

Arctic Goddess writes: “You never mentioned Joe Flanigan or Rachel Luttrell at the cast dinner. Were they away for some reason? How do you feel about beef jerky? Love it or hate it?”

Answer: Joe and Rachel were both there. As for jerky, there’s a place on Fraiser where we picked up the greatest spicy beef and pork jerky.

Anne S. writes: “Is there a way to present stories for Atlantis without an agent, or is the show even accepting unsolicited stories?”

Answer: Sorry, Anne. We’re all staffed up for this season.

Iamza writes: “May I take this to mean that the wraith will also be making more of an appearance in season 4? Also, are there more stories in the works about the Athosians?”

Answer: Yes on both counts.

Dem writes: “Do Sam and Cam have a romantic/physical attraction to one another?”

Answer: I haven’t seen it but who knows what Rob and Brad have in store for the cast.

JohnManzione writes: “Are there plans to continue SG1 past the two movies? Would it be possible to produce 3 movies a year? On Atlantis for S4, are there any plans to have Daniel, Vala, and Mitchell as guest stars?”

Answer: The SG-1 franchise will continue as long as it has fans to support it. If the first two movies sell well enough, it would guarantee many more movies to come. As for SG-1 cast members putting in an appearance or two on Atlantis - it’s very possible. It’s a small universe after all.

Anonymous #1 writes: “Is Adrift and Lifeline a two-parter like Lost City (one episode) or like Progeny and The Real World (two single episodes)?”

Answer: More the latter. There will, however, be several like story elements that will run through a number of episodes in the show’s fourth season.

[prion]

March 3, 2007

Peter writes: “How many standalone episodes would you say are in the first 10 eps of Atlantis Season 4?”

Answer: Hmmm, hard to say. Although many are standalone episodes, they all have elements that carry over from previous episodes and will carry into others. More than any other season, we’re looking to develop arcs - both big and small - that will run over the course of multiple episodes.

Jenny writes: “In the hopefully unlikely event Atlantis is cancelled after season four, there will be no real resolution to the show, as the final episode will have already been produced before word of either renewal or cancellation arrives. As a longtime Stargate fan, I would hate for that to happen. What are your thoughts on this? Is this something you will keep in mind when you are writing the last script of the season? Or have you spoken about this with Sci Fi?”Answer: Who knows what the future holds? But when it comes to Stargate Atlantis, given the scheduling shift and the fall premiere for season four, the show’s future may well depend on the strength of the back half of season three. Ideally, of course, it would be great to know about a fifth season pick-up before the last script has been written. We’ll have to see how it goes.


Anonymous #1 writes: “Hey Joe, any chance that you'll be in DVD special features?”

Answer: I’ll be hosting the Deleted Footage special feature for the season 10 release.


Anonymous #2 writes: “With the added burden of showrunning, will you be writing fewer episodes than in past seasons?”

Answer: The fact that we will be producing 20 episodes this season, as opposed to 40, means we will all be writing fewer episodes.


Elisabeth writes: “I know that you mostly hate shippers…”

Answer: Untrue. In fact, I’ve always been a supporter of the Jack-Sam relationship and do feel it should be resolved at series end. Whenever that is.


Dave writes: “Joe was the reason to delayed season 4 to Fall because you guys want SG-1 movies out by then? “

Answer: The decision to push season 5 to the Fall was a network decision. It had nothing to do with the movies.


Anonymous #3 writes: “Scifi is showing a show called "Stargate Mythology" before the Second Half of Season 10 starts. Do you happen to have any information about it? And who would be hosting it?”

Answer: This is something Ivon Bartok put together. It’s an overview of Stargate Mythology that will touch on everything from the Ancients to the Jaffa.


Anonymous #5 writes: “We heard earlier a rumour, that maybe the story of the new Atlantis attraction in the Movie Park Germany will be in season 4 too as a two partner episode. Is it true?”

Answer: This is news to me.

[Platschu]

[B]March 3, 2007
Anonymous #5 writes: “We heard earlier a rumour, that maybe the story of the new Atlantis attraction in the Movie Park Germany will be in season 4 too as a two partner episode. Is it true?”

Answer: This is news to me.

I asked this question with my terrible English grammar. I speak English as good as Hiro in Heroes. JM answered at least something and I am proud of this.